I was pleased with the clarity of this shot despite the fact that it was taken through the window of a moving helicopter. The white line you see on the sides of the lake is the original water line. Lake Mead is currently down 91 feet.

I had the pleasure of photographing South Lake Tahoe last week. Not really knowing where to go, I discovered Zephyr Cove. The cloud formations there were unlike anything I had ever seen before. They were actually pretty suttle in this shot, but I loved the rest of it. If I just could of gotten the boat to move! This is two exposures combined in Photoshop.

A 3-light-year-long pillar, bathed in the glow of light from hot, massive stars to the top of the image. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from these stars are sculpting the pillar and causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of gas and dust can be seen flowing off the top of the structure.

Nestled inside this dense structure are fledgling stars. They cannot be seen in this image because they are hidden by a wall of gas and dust. Although the stars themselves are invisible, one of them is providing evidence of its existence. Thin puffs of material can be seen traveling to the left and to the right of a dark notch in the center of the pillar. The matter is part of a jet produced by a young star. Farther away, on the left, the jet is visible as a grouping of small, wispy clouds. A few small clouds are visible at a similar distance on the right side of the jet. Astronomers estimate that the jet is moving at speeds of up to 850,000 miles an hour. The jet's total length is about 10 light-years.

Composed of gas and dust, the pillar resides in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.